


Escaping the Hell Dogs

by bananacosmicgirl



Series: The Changed verse [5]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Centaurs, Friendship, Gen, Supernatural Elements, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27506533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananacosmicgirl/pseuds/bananacosmicgirl
Summary: Tony and Ziva flee when a suspect attacks them.
Series: The Changed verse [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010238
Kudos: 6





	Escaping the Hell Dogs

“I swear, if you make a single joke about riding me, I will kill you.”

Tony held on for dear life – trying his best not to touch her boobs – and hadn’t thought about it, though he had no doubt that given some time, a lot of dubiously work-allowed comments waited to be uttered.

“Just—get us the hell out of here,” he said instead, breathing fast.

“I am trying.” He couldn’t argue with that; Ziva galloped across the streets. “Are they still following us?”

Tony did his best to turn his head to gaze back while still holding onto her. He couldn’t see their pursuers anymore, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

Hell-dogs. Really, this job had gotten _way_ more exciting since the Change.

Ziva kept running for a minute or two longer, just to be on the safe side.

“We should get down to the river,” she said. “Water will make them lose track of our scent.”

Tony looked down at himself, soaked in sweat from their sudden forced escape. “I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to smell me, anyway.”

Ziva crinkled her nose. “Agreed.”

“Hey, it’s not like you’re much better off,” Tony said, only slightly offended.

“I’ve run eight blocks.” She raised an eyebrow. “What did you do?”

“Stayed on? I know I make it look like a walk in the park—” she snorted “—but staying on your back when you’re galloping is tough. It’s not like there’s a handle to hold on to or anything.”

“Do you want me to get a saddle?” He heard the dare in her voice.

He grinned. “There’s probably some hot stuff out there now, saddle-wise. I mean, I can’t be the first one since the Change to ride a centaur.”

She looked like she wanted to smack him, but she couldn’t reach because he sat on her back. It was a weird feeling. He remembered riding the horse out with Gibbs in the desert, but other than that, he hadn’t much to compare it with. Still, riding on centaur-Ziva’s back – he carefully did not call it ‘riding Ziva’ even in his head, because it’d slip out and then he’d end up in pieces, being fed to the hell-dogs – was very different form riding a regular horse. For one thing, she talked to him.

“Call Gibbs.” She woke him from his reverie.

“You do it.”

“I got us out of that mess,” Ziva said. “You call Gibbs.”

He made a sound like a half-groan, because calling Gibbs to tell him that the murderer had gotten away and that the dude guarded himself with hell-dogs wasn’t on his top ten list of things to do today.

He fished out his cell phone while she started walking towards NCIS. They were only a few blocks away.

“I suppose you don’t want to walk on your own?” she asked before he dialled the phone.

He looked down at his left leg. It throbbed with warm, sticky blood coated along the side. Damn dogs and their sharp teeth. He’d almost forgotten about it in the adrenaline kick of the flight.

“Don’t think I can,” he said. “Sorry.” He meant it. He was pretty sure that Ziva had never had anyone ride on her back, and the only reason he sat up there was necessity. If he could’ve walked, he would have.

He dialed and a moment later, Gibbs’ gruff voice answered. “You didn’t get him.”

Gibbs’ gut was not a new thing, but it having turned into a mind-reading version was like a major upgrade, and still weird.

“Well, no,” Tony said. “He had hell-dogs.”

“Just get in here. Abby’ll fix you up.”

The call ended with a click on Gibbs’ part and Tony put the phone away. His leg throbbed, and he longed to get back to NCIS. It was practical, having a healer on staff these days. No more sitting in Ducky’s morgue on cold metal, waiting for the good doctor’s reprimands about being more careful. Although he got the same lecture from Abby.

He held onto Ziva, hands on her waist. When she wasn’t galloping for dear life, staying on was easy enough, even though her dark brown coat was glistening with sweat.

“You know,” he said, “that was cool back there. The whole swinging-me-up-on-your-back thing. And I’m pretty sure the running thing was cool too, if I’d the time to enjoy it. Though, like I said, something to hold on to would be good.”

“You will not ride me again, Tony.” A hint of playfulness in her voice, the rest was steel – but it was enough to convince him that if put in the same situation again, she would no doubt act the same way. She had his back.

It was good to know that the Change hadn’t changed everything.


End file.
